Some handheld computing devices such as smart phones can provide a variety of different optical functions such as one-dimensional (1D) or three-dimensional (3D) gesture detection, 3D imaging, time-of-flight or proximity detection, ambient light sensing, and/or front-facing two-dimensional (2D) camera imaging.
Time-of-flight (TOF) sensors, for example, can be used to detect the distance to an object. In general, TOF systems are based on the phase-measurement technique of emitted intensity-modulated light, which is reflected by a scene. The reflected light is imaged onto a sensor, and the photo-generated electrons are demodulated in the sensor. Based on the phase information, the distance to a point in the scene for each pixel can be determined by processing circuitry associated with the sensor.